With conventional engines reaching their limits, researchers have been trying to find ways to boost fuel efficiency
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenZhang Tongin BeijingPublished: 7:00pm, 23 Jun 2026A Chinese Long March-12 rocket launched last week used a new super fuel that boosted the rocket’s payload capacity by 10 per cent, according to its developer.
Instead of designing bigger, more expensive airframes, The Beijing Aerospace Test Technology Research Institute, a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), has been working on ways to maximise the energy density of the fuel used.
Most rocket launches today use liquid oxygen-kerosene (kerolox) engines, but the fuel mixture they have traditionally used – based on refined petroleum – has now reached its performance limits.
Instead, researchers have developed a new “high-energy synthetic kerosene” to fire the engines.
The CASC said last week that this boosted the engine’s specific impulse – a measure of engine efficiency, similar to fuel economy in cars – by around eight seconds.
